*HP EliteBook 8540w Owners Lounge!*

Some people love their fingerprint reader, some hate it. If you don't plan on using it, save the money and skip it.

You can optimize battery life by turning off unnecessary programs, processes, hardware, and lowering screen brightness.

The more important question is whether you actually need more than 4GB of memory and what you plan on doing with your notebook.

 

Been testing my new 8540w (i5, 256 GB SSD, ATI FirePro, full HD). Migrating from my 5-year old Inspiron 9300.

Love the 8540w's spacious display, its great to be able to run an IM client + two pdf/word windows side-by-side without an external monitor. Very sharp and bright. No flex on the display hinges.

System is quiet and solidly built. Keyboard has a great firm feel and it is nice to have a numpad. Touchpad surface is wide enough with an ample vertical and horizontal scroll area. Light indicators are bright and attractive. Function buttons work smoothly with the HP software ad-on.

 

Only a couple cons:

1) Currently no TRIM support on the included Samsung SSD because of outdated proprietary HP firmware (vbm1ah1q).

Pretty sure the drive is a Samsung PM800, which some here who have proprietary Dell/HP firmware have managed to update. Others have bricked their drives though. Anyone with an 8540w manage to update the firmware safely, or contacted HP about releasing their own updated firmware?

2) Some smudging/darkening from fingerprints on the gunmetal finish. How have y'all been keeping the finish clean?

 

Fingerprint reader is a standard feature in the 8540w.

 

Ok, well you still have the option of using it or not. My Acer has a fingerprint reader but I disabled the process and uninstalled the drivers. I don't really care for it. The OP can try it out and if he/she likes it then continue on, else uninstall it and save some HDD space (and possibly load up Windows a little faster).

 

Hi,
I have a strange problem with my notebook, it turns itself on every few days around midnight. At first that would ocure only every 20days then recently it started to happen every few days. I have windows 7. Do you have any clue how to solve this problem. I use WLAN not LAN.
Thnax

 

Make sure you have the option to reboot after system crash disabled under system properties. My guess some program you run have actions scheduled at midnight and that's when it crashes.

 

Hi gringo_cro!

Are you maybe from Croatia? I am too.
Tell me something about your new 8540w? Is it better than the HP WD927EA model? For what programs do you use your 8540w? And how is the 15.6 screen? I prefer 15.4 but they dont produce them anymore apparently.

 

Hi, yep im from Croatia, i bought WD928EA because i think it has best price/specs ratio, i payed mine 11500kn (~2000$) (also check the prices at nabava.net)
I too was concerned about 15.6'' screen but now when i have it i can't tell the difference. Go for the FHD screen instead of HD+ because you can always decrese resolution on FHD but can't increse it on HD+ and price difference is too small, and also WD928EA has bluray reader.
I use it for CAD civil 3d.
HP is very generous with suplied discs, i got: win7 32 and 64bit dvds, win xp dvd, drivers and software dvd...

 

Ok, lets skip to croatian now!
Znači bolje mi je da uzmem ovaj s većom rezom nego onaj s manjom?
Još gledam i 8740w, s rezolucijom 1680x1050 i ati grafičkom karticom. Isto mi treba laptop za web dizajn, za rad u Adobe CS5 programima. Šta kažeš na 8740w?

A u HG SPOT-u sam vidio da još imaju HP 8530w, s 4 gb rama, nvidia grafičkom 512 mb, blue-ray diskom i 15.4 ekranom s 1680x1050 rezolucijom.
Razmišjam možda si uzeti taj laptop. Šta ti kažeš?

 

pozz
neznam koliko ce biti ekipa na forumu zadovoljna sto sprehamo na hrvatskom, ali...
Veca reza je uvijek bolja, jer ju mozes smanjiti, a na ovome s manjom ne mozes povecati ako ti zatreba.
Ako ti treba mobilnost uzmi 8540w, ako ti treba snaga 8740w, sve ovisi sto preferiras, po meni laptop preko 3kg nije laptop vec cigla, uvijek lako pristekas externi monitor ako ti zatreba veci ekran. 8530w ti je stari model i bolje ti je uzeti 8540w, jer je bolje građen i ima i numericku tipkovnicu, a vjeruj mi numericka tipkovnica na laptopu je bogomdana. Samo da znas da modeli s dvojezgrenim procesorima dolaze samo sa dva RAM slota i mogu imati max 8GB rama. I naravno da bi windowsi mogli koristiti vise od 3GB rama moras imati 64 bit sustav a mislim da 8530w ima 32 bit tako da prepoznaje max 3,5gb.

P.S. Sorry folks for little motherthongue talk.

 

pozdrav!
hvala ti na odgovoru gringo_cro

da, znam da je mozda bed sto sprehamo na hrvatskom ali ovako je brze i lakse, bar meni..
Da, za 8740w sam pročitao da je težak ali bar ima 16:10 ekran.
Mislio sam čak uzeti 8540w onaj sa manjom rezom i uzet uz to externi monitor pa bi tako radio, ali kaj kad necu biti doma onda cu trebat radit na laptopu, a na 16:9 nisam jos radio do sada. Tebi ne fale pixeli u visinu?
Ovaj 8530w vidio sam u HGSPOT-u, ima sve najjače od tog modela, čak mislim da bi mogao vrtit i 64 bitne windowse.
E, da te pitam još, kakva ti se čini tipkovnica na tvom 8540w?
Naime, inače volim puno pisati, brzo, a i sve skripte dok sam studirao, a mozda cu nastaviti studij pa cu jos trebati puno pisati , sam pisao na svom trenutnom laptopu (HP 6710b), a on ima skoro istu tipkovnicu kao i 8530w.
Vidim da je tipkovnica na 8540w malo čudna, da ima razmak između tipki?

P.S. Also sorry folks for little motherthongue talk

Thanks!

 

Well, after doing a clean install of Win 7 64-bit, the full 16GB came up as both installed and available. That tells me that the issue might be related to the OS build that HP uses, and how that may cause an issue for some to not have their full 16GB of their memory available/accessible.

What a p.i.t.a.

 

Anyone have an issue w/the above? At each startup it shows a bang (!) and it won't show green unless I double-click/open the app. Granted each time I do the above the Windows UAC fires up with the "are you sure" message, but I can't see turning off the UAC just to have this thing start up correctly each time.

Anyone have the above happen, and if so, find a resolution?

Thanks! - M

 

Sounds like the failure is due to UAC blocking; somehow you need to give it permanent permissions?

 

Hello Everyone,

This site here has the versions WD928EA and WD930EA for a very attractive price for students and I will probably buy one of them.

However, I am not sure if I should spend the extra €250 (~$300) for the WD930EA and would appreciate some help.

Obviously the main differences are

WD930EA
o i7-620M
o 8G RAM
o FX1800
o gobi umts / gps module

WD928EA
o i5-540 M
o 4G RAM
o FX880
o complete lack of gobi umts / gps module

My main concern is about battery life and noise under light load as I do not really need the upgrades, which in turn seem more future proof and gps might be fun so... little dilemma.

Both models seem to have the same battery. No idea if the WD930 has a stronger power adapter.

AFAIK the 620M draws considerably more power at idle than the 540M despite the same TDP (sorry for missing link now), plus the FX1800 has a higher overall TDP than the FX880.

Does this have a noticable effect on battery life under light load (web surfing, office stuff) / idle?
Does this have a noticable effect on fan activity under light load / idle?

Thanks a lot in advance!

EDIT:
Shoooooot. My assumptions about the 620M were based on an old notebookcheck.com-test which in turn was apparently based on a bad chip. An updated version (which I had not come across before for whatever reason) of that same test, shows that both i7-620M and i5-540M are basically equally hungry. My bad, I just should have checked more carefully.

 

Lets say if I sell my 8540w, how do I transfer the warranty? (I'm having a second thought on my order, and it's shipped - from what I heard, a CTO is not returnable)

Also, can I transfer the warranty to someone from another country outside USA?

 

So far haven't found a way to grant a specific app privileges to run w/o the UAC dialog popping up...anyone? Anyone?

Thanks! - M

 

Can you turn off UAC for all programs maybe?

 

That's something I was trying not to do...you shouldn't have to disable UAC across the board just for one application...

..then again...if someone knows a way around this...

Right now I have the UAC notify me when an app tries to do something, so I only get it on startup, but, still, it's annoying to hit <OK> at each startup...

 

How about run as Admin? That won't do either?

 

so umm

sorry if i have already asked this.

is the fx1800 mxm 3b or 3a??


will there be massive upgrade potential or not?

 

I posted this on the HP Support website, but as everyone in this thread owns the same laptop as me, maybe you've stumbled upon and found a solution to this already:

"DisplayPort -> HDMI Adapter -> 1080 HD Plasma; Crystal Clear Vid, but no Audio

Computer: HP EliteBook 8540w (Windows 7 Professional)
Television: Hitachi Ultravision (Plasma, 1080p, at least 50", built-in speakers)

Video Card: NVIDIA Quadro FX 880m
Driver: NVIDIA DRIVERS 257.21 WHQL

My laptop doesn't have an HDMI port, so I purchased an adapter on Amazon. The adapter says that it supports conversion from Display Port 1.1 to HDMI. It's basically a dongle sticking out the side of my laptop. From the adapter, I have a 6 ft. HDMI to HDMI cable connecting to a HDMI port on the television.

PROBLEM:
I can get a beautiful display, but the audio will NOT come out of the television speakers.

Helpful info:
- From what I've been reading, the graphics card is supposed to pass the audio to the television, but my only audio output option is for my laptop's internal speakers.

- Amazon reviews for my DisplayPort -> HDMI converter report that some users received audio output from their televisions immediately after connection.

- NVIDIA says that their should be an option in the "NVIDIA Control Panel" that says "Set Up Digital Audio," but there aren't any audio settings available in the control panel for me ti tamper with.

- Despite the devices being hot-swappable, I've done a series of power downs and boot-ups while connected to see if an audio connection could be established.

- I can achieve audio output with the use of a Y-cable from my headphone jack, but I would HEAVILY prefer it through the use of my DisplayPort.


I'm almost positive that it's either a problem with the television (it is about 3-years old), or the graphics card and its drivers. (Which, according to NVIDIA, supports audio transmition to HDMI with the use of an adapter.)

Any and all help is appreciated [:"

 

Good question, first I'd like to verify whether or not the GPU is soldered into the mobo. If not, there could be some options when Fermi Quadro/FirePro cards arrive.

 

I remember the same fiasco with Lenovo W700. Reading stuffs on lenovoforums, I think the conclusion was that, besides nvidia, the manufacturers themselves have to implement the feature. And Lenovo didn't implement it on their laptops at that time. Could that be the case here as well?

I thought all the workstations like Elitebook do not have the GPU soldered onto the mobo?

 

17" - yes. But I'm not too sure about the 15" systems. Will double check.

 

I'll receive my 8540w this Friday. If I'm keeping it, I can open it and check. (I want to sell it - any takers ?? -, looking at D900F instead).

 

Just as an update on my order:

Order Date/Time: 06/21/2010 10:54:16 AM
Original Estimated Delivery Date: 06/29/2010

Current Estimated Delivery Date: 7/29/2010

hp 8540w i7-840QM DC2 FX1800M 2GB 160GB SSD+500GB HDD

 

I just received my 8540w with 1800M, upgrading from a nc8430. I'm going to be using it for a lot of photoshop, photography, web/print design and basic video production. A few initial thoughts:

Pluses:

+ This thing is beautiful and looks expensive. I'm expecting to gain some major respect when my clients see what I'm working with. Yep.

+ i5-540 and 1800m are awesome to use in mobile media production. Kudos to Intel and cudas to Nvidia.

+ Build quality.

+ Screen is bright and contrasty. Colors are good for a matte screen (subjectively). I'm planning to do color critical work on a ZR24w anyway.

+ Keyboard types well.

+ Who likes small trackpads? Me! It's fast and with a little practice, accurate.


Minuses:

- Coming from 16:10 1680x1050, 16:9 1600:900 feels like a !-MAJOR-! downgrade. I know this BS is forced by panel manufacturers, but I have yet to find ONE positive comment about 16:9 online. It's a conspiracy.

- Speakers are absolutely the worst of any laptop I've ever used. Bottom placed, imbalanced to the left, sound muffled and mono. This is TERRIBLE!

- Keyboard is quite lovely, but I don't care for the numpad. I'd really prefer center placement because my left hand position is awkward now, to the point of being uncomfortable when typing for extended periods of time. This is a side-effect of widening to 16:9, which makes me feel hate towards 16:9 even more.

- I don't like "touch" style control buttons. Give us the real thing with feedback. At least it'll be easier to clean.

- Status lights above the keyboard light up like a christmas tree! I'll have to find a way to dim them because they're quite distracting at night.


Conclusion:

Now I have a powerhouse laptop that I'll have to connect to an external monitor, external speakers and external keyboard to truly enjoy. I never felt like that with my 3 year old nc8430.

16:9. Barf again.

 

i am also thinking of buying this laptop but i am concerned about these cons that you have mentioned just here in these post.
i dont know what to do, to buy this laptop or not.
also i am considering of buying the 8740w, but that thing is huge so i dont know if i could carry it easy from place to place.

what would be your advice john82, after buying your 8540w?

 

If you really need a 16:10 screen - hurry up as D900F is gonna be discontinued in a month or so. As you probably know, it'll be replaced with x7200.

As for the GPU, I checked the maintenance guide and it's 100% replaceable! Not soldered! For example M5800 part number is 595823-001 and it costs ~440$ to buy separately from HP parts store.
That also gives some hope to those interested in upgrading their W510 and M4500 systems

 

One thing to keep in mind - I'm very picky and peculiar. My cons might be irrelevant to somebody else

The issue here... there are no real alternatives. I also considered W510 but the basic model costs 2400€ here while I paid 1500€ for this 8540w.

8540w is still a fantastic laptop and I'd probably buy it again. I'm just frustrated that my 3 year oldie was better in some ways.

One pro I forgot to mention: the 68whr long-life battery. I'll be very excited if I get 3 years from it. I've destroyed 3 batteries with my nc8430.

 

Thanks for the reply!

BTW, what is your model number, WD927EA? Or WD928EA?

 

VC230
Not sure if it's available outside of my country (Slovenia)

Again - despite my complaints, it's still better than 99% of plastic glossy-screen toys out there.

 

Now it's harder for me to make my decision . Because if I can upgrade it, I might keep the 8540w and get a fermi quadro later (I'm a GPGPU junkie).

Now it's between portability + less power vs less portability + a lot of power. I don't think I'll wait for the x7200. Unless...well, nvm, not gonna happen.

 

Any benchmark/review for ATI Firepro M5800 (in comparison with Nvidia FX880/1800)? Would be great if any of you owners can review this GPU.

 

There have been several benches done against some of the NV cards.
What would you like to see run against an M5800? I'll gladly throw just about any request at mine.

 

Since the M5800 is GDDR3 it performs identically to the HD 5730. The FX 880M is a slightly underclocked GT 330M, and performs slightly worse than the ATI card. The FX 1800M is an overclocked GT 335M with GDDR5 memory and can perform significantly better than the ATI card.

 

Has anyone purchased their 8540W from an ebay seller (bobboli)? His feedback consists almost entirely of Elitebook sales.
He keeps posting good deals on the 8540W and most of the feedback looks legit. However, one thing that has made me wary is a buyer that only had 6 feedbacks. Apparently, that buyer's feedback came from purchasing 6 units at different times. And you know the old saying... if it's too good to be true, it probably is.

 

Hello Together,

yesterday I received my 8540w WD928EA, i5-540, FX 880.

So far I've been extremely happy except for one issue: fan speed and noise.

1. the fan is always running (and even at slowest speed considerably louder than the one from my old notebook)
2. it very quickly reaches higher speed levels, even when I only surf the web a bit it doesn't stay at its original level

I have already deactivated bios option "fan always on when on AC" and have set the Win 7 energy settings very constraining. Even tried setting max cpu power to 30%.

Strangely, I have not noticed any effect. CPU speeds go down to 1200MHz but no further and it looks like both cores are always active.

running powercfg -energy in command mode says that my PCI-Express Active State Power Management has been deactivated due to unknown incompatibility with some hardware. ???

HW monitor says, after running the windows performance index check, cpu temperatures were up to 68°/69° respectively. CPU speeds were 2500MHz as indicated by some cpu frequency freeware (even though energy settings were still at 30% cpu power max).

Questions:
1. does the fan really need to always be on?
2. is there a way to underclock the cpus to less than 1200MHz? I've not been able to find software for that
3. is there a way to underclock the gpu?
4. is this ASPM issue relevant?
5. is there a way to control fan regulation? I'd prefer some more degrees for the cpus combined with less noise at least when I do no more than surfing.

Thanks a lot!

 

The only cards that should be soldered to the board are ddr gpus thus the whole motherboard needs replacing. gddr gpus can be replaced.
so whoever said the m5800 can be replaced is wrong. only the quadro 1800m can upgrade the gpu which is prob why the 1800m is so much more expensive than the 880m and m5800.

 

M5800, FX880M and FX1800M can all be replaced. I checked the maintenance guide for 8540w and all three cards are interchangeable and orderable separately.

For example M5800 part number is 595823-001 and it costs ~440$ to buy separately from HP parts store.
The reason why Nvidia GPU's are more expensive is in CUDA and in general better pro apps support in the past, more expensive manufacturing process and marketing BS. At the time FX1800M appeared, there was no competition from AMD. But the MR5xxx series changed everything. They are less power hungry, more efficient and offer more performance in addition to lower cost. Even with GDDR5, FX1800M is losing to M5800 in benches.

 

From benchmarks posted earlier on in the thread, the ATI card performs just slightly below the FX 1800m and much better than the FX800m. I believe the consensus was that the ATI card was much better value if not requiring CUDA due to the small difference in performance between it and the 400+ dollars more expensive FX 1800M. In my case I plan to put that towards a DC2 display.

 

Does anyone else experience a screen flashing problem with 8540w? My screen goes black for a milisecond every now and then. It's really annoying and far too frequent. I can't isolate the problem 100%, but it seems to appear randomly while opening new tabs in google chrome, playing a youtube video,

I'm using a 1600x900 screen with 1800m, 189.33 drivers on Win 7 Ultimate x64 and F.08 bios.

I tried other drivers available on HP site without success.

 

You need to tell Windows which audio device to use. If you use a HDMI adapter and connect a HDMI device, a new audio device appears among the Windows audio devices, it's called "NVIDIA High Definition Audio". Select it and you will have sound on your TV.

 

Please, can anyone give a statement on fan behaviour? Is it normal that it's always on (even though bios option "fan always on when on AC" is deactivated) and that it speeds up under minimal load such as bios option changing or surfing the web?

 

im not going to doubt wot you say but thats just from what i read about those cards specifically.
butyea the m5800 seems to perform better in bench marks more so than the 1800m which im suprised about. i no gddr5 doesnt mean raw power but you would think a big difference between that and 880m. prob 40% better.

 

while installing windows xp professional on hp 8540w laptop, I have got blue screen, any help pl.

 

The -type- and -speed- of memory have no bearing on whether a video card (edit: or modular unit) in a notebook can be removed or not. The memory is on the removable board in the case of removable graphics.

Wherever you heard this from is completely inaccurate.
gDDR3 is a different memory spec than DDR3. Example: DDR2 is a different spec than DDR3. the 'g' designation refers to a spec that was designed for graphics (edit: for improved performance, but non 'g' spec memory is used for graphic solutions all the time, typically as a cost reduction decision).

The only way to know if a video card is integrated or removable is by exceptionally detailed notebook specs (available in some reviews, repair manuals, spare part listings, etc) or by opening up the system, or looking at the physical build yourself.

Even video cards with 'shared' video memory can now be removable based on new memory sharing techniques that can be achieved through system BIOS and video driver implementations. In many cases 'dedicated' video cards will extend out to system memory when configured accordingly.

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gDDR5 addresses a memory performance bottleneck but has nothing to do with the featureset or specifications of the GPU itself. That is why the M5800 has some promising benchmarks in comparison. The GPU is faster, the memory pipe is less, the net result in -this- case is faster. Had it been paired with gDDR5, the potential would've been even better at higher resolutions with high-texture detail.

As far as the PRICE debate is concerned, AMD/ATI FirePRO (FireGL) cards are still competitive in the market ONLY because of price.

Nvidia has MUCH better solutions with their Quadro FX products (mainly through their driver support and enhanced specs for Workstation-class applications) and ATI/AMD has never been able to match Nvidia with comprable hardware. In this case, AMD/ATI has newer generation hardware (Radeon 5xxx based) vs. Nvidia's (Geforce 9xxx and GTX 2xx series based) and has been rather competitive, but Nvidia's new Fermi-based Quadro solutions (based on Geforce GTS 4xx) will likely take the crown again.

That said, AMD/ATI FirePro/FireGL has always been seen as the low-cost alternative to the Nvidia Quadro/Quadro FX series. In many cases the cost of a Quadro FX card costs the same as a new computer. Businesses that can't afford these solutions will typically fall back to a FireGL/FirePro card due to cost.

AMD/ATI has consistently underpriced Nvidia in the professional workstation graphics segment, and a $400 differencial is well within the normal pricing range of the desktop card range. So that's why it is cheaper.
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